Ruzbeh Akbar Receives NASA Fellowship For SMAP Mission Research

Ruzbeh Akbar, graduate student in electrical engineering, has been selected
to receive a
NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship for the project, "Development of
an integrated radar-radiometer estimation algorithm for retrieval of soil
moisture from SMAP."

This
research focuses on developing a soil moisture estimation algorithm that
simultaneously utilizes radar and radiometer measurements, and through
applying electromagnetic inverse scattering techniques has the promise of
substantially enhancing the quality of soil moisture retrievals from
microwave satellite measurements. Previous methods use either radar or
radiometer measurements, but not both, and therefore cannot take advantage
the synergistic physical processes involved. Taking a simultaneous snapshot
using both instruments is anticipated to enable such retrievals from NASA's
Soil Moisture
Active-Passive (SMAP) mission. The SMAP
mission is planned for launch in 2014.

SMAP is a satellite mission for mapping surface soil moisture and freeze/thaw states
from space for the purpose of scientific advances and societal benefits.
According to NASA, direct measurements of soil moisture and freeze/thaw
state are needed to improve our understanding of regional water cycles,
ecosystem productivity, and processes that link the water, energy, and
carbon cycles. Soil moisture information at high resolution enables
improvements in weather forecasts, flood and drought forecasts, and
predictions of agricultural productivity and climate change.